Seen & Heard on Planet Coug 5/2

PAT MITCHELL

05/02/2008

TWO STARS FROM WSU's 1992 Copper Bowl team, who also had just a wee bit of success in the NFL, are penned in for the King County Cougar Club's annual golf classic and dinner on May 30. Tony Bennett, Paul Wulff, June Daugherty and other Cougar coaches also will be on hand for the get-together, which is being co-sponsored by Cougfan.com.

Former NFL Pro Bowlers Drew Bledsoe and Robbie Tobeck, cornerstones of WSU's 9-3 team of 1992, are slated to tee it up.

"It's a day you don't want to miss – a relaxed afternoon with friends, enjoying the sun and a beverage or two, and talking Cougars sports with the outstanding group of head coaches and assistants we have at WSU," says Glenn Osterhout of the King County Cougar Club. "And if you don't want to play golf, come out to the dinner and auction that evening. It's truly a great time."

For the second year in a row, the event will be held at sparkling Newcastle Golf Club, just outside Bellevue. Registration starts at 11 am, with a shotgun start at 1 pm. That evening, the social hour starts at 6 pm, with dinner at 7.

All proceeds benefit WSU Student Athlete Scholarships. Golf and dinner together are $250 per person. Dinner alone is $65 per person. Contact Todd Thrasher at 206-448-1335 or tthrasher@wsuwest.edu to secure you spot.

SALES FOR THE COUGARS' August 30 "Gridiron Classic" football opener at Qwest Field against Oklahoma State are brisk. As of Monday morning, the WSU ticket office reported that sales were running 20 percent ahead of last year's pace, with 8,860 seats sold. Coupled with the 5,000 that Oklahoma State pledged to fill and the 5,600 set aside for WSU students, the game is closing in on 20,000 filled seats –- and kickoff isn't for another four months. Qwest Field holds 67,000. For tickets or more information, call 1-800-GO-COUGS.

For folks looking to make a grand time of that Labor Day Weekend, consider this: The Seahawks are playing an exhibition game at Qwest the night before, vs. the Raiders, and the glorious food- and music-fest, Bumbershoot, will be running all weekend at Seattle Center.

CONGRATULATIONS TO COUGAR legend Rueben Mayes who was just elected into the College Football Hall of Fame. The record-setting early 80s All-American –- and one of the classiest individuals you'll ever meet -- joins elite crimson company. He'll be just the fourth Cougar in the Hall, along with Turk Edwards (1929-31), Mel Hein (1928-30) and head coach Babe Hollingbery (1926-41).

Rueben, the 1986 NFL Rookie of the Year, completed his WSU career ranked No. 6 on the all-time Pac-10 rushing list with 3,519 career yards. He's been a fundraiser with the WSU Foundation for many years.

THE STAT MAN: JIM MURPHY

A PAIR OF WSU SENIORS are slugging it out –- literally -– for MVP honors of the Cougar baseball team. First baseman Jim Murphy of Kirkland and infielder Paul Gran of Bothell are piling up the stats. Murphy is hitting .309, Gran .336. Murphy has 10 homers and 45 RBI, Gran 8 and 42. Murphy's slugging percentage is .617, Gran's .579. In addition, Gran has 7 stolen bases.
The Cougs will be in Seattle for three games with the Huskies on May 9, 10 and 11. Also, seats are still available for head coach Donnie Marbut's "Night with Cougar Baseball" on May 8 at the Washington Athletic Club. To secure your spot, contact Jonell Peterson at 509-335-0310 or jonellp@wsu.edu. The cost is $75 per person.

DESPITE AN 0-8 START and the fact starting quarterback Joe Germaine was yanked, in favor of CouGreat Jason Gesser, in the fourth quarter of the Utah Blaze's Arena League game last weekend, there is no QB controversy brewing, Blaze coach Danny White told reporters this week.

Another old Cougar is making a serious bid for AFL rookie of the year honors. Defensive back Chris Martin, who played for the Cougs from 1998-2000, ranks second in the Arena Football League in kickoff return yards and leads the Grand Rapid Rampage in tackles. He set a pair of franchise records when he returned three kickoffs for touchdowns in one game. He comes to the AFL after stints in AFL2 and the Canadian Football League.

WSU'S KYLE WEAVER is in rare company these days. In the latest projections by NBAdraft.net, only two seniors are slated to be taken in the first round of the NBA's June 26 draft –- Weaver, at No. 30, by the Celtics, and Georgetown center Roy Hibbert, at No. 23, by Utah. Of the 28 other players believed destined for the first-round, 11 are freshmen.

The Pac-10 is well-represented in the first round forecast, with ten players listed. The highest-ranked are USC's O.J. Mayo, Arizona's Jerryd Bayless and Stanford's Brook Lopez, who are slated to go third, fourth and fifth, respectively.

JESSICA OESTREICHER

SPEAKING OF HOOPS,June Daugherty's class of recruits that arrives in August is looking even better now than it was last fall when rated one of the top 25 in the nation.

Two members of the class led their teams to state championships -- Katie Grad of Auburn-Riverside High and April Cook of national powerhouse Long Beach Poly – while another, Street & Smith's All-American Jazmine Perkins of Berkeley, Calif., guided her club to the state title game against Cook's team from Long Beach Poly.

Six-foot-eight center Jessica Oestreicher, believed to be the tallest women's recruit in WSU history, led her Redding, Calif., club to a 30-2 record while averaging 11.4 points, 6.7 rebound and 2.4 blocks per game. She was named honorable mention All-America by The Sporting News.

Meanwhile, 6-1 forward Lexie Pettersen of Spokane became the all-time leading scorer and rebounder at Shadle Park High, and Rosie Tarnowski, a 6-1 all-league guard/forward from Philadelphia, was recognized as the top senior girls' basketball player in Philly. She led Archbishop Wood High to a 23-3 record.

NOBODY ASKED, BUT ... those wacky students at the University of Washington at are at again. A recent story in the Seattle P-I chronicled how a group of Dawgs was walking around campus with empty gun holsters strapped onto their belts as a symbolic protest against the concealed-weapons ban on college campuses. Talk about half-baked. Advocating that a bunch of youngsters be allowed to tote loaded guns around in their Northface's makes about as much sense as Ty Willingham's fourth quarter defensive alignments. But don't forget that this is the same student body that protested placement on campus of a statue honoring World War II fighter ace (and UW alum) Pappy Boyington.